The strike was announced by AFSCME Local 3299, University of California’s largest employee union after various negotiations on collective bargaining, the rise in wages and lifting the retirement age among others failed with university officials.

“The University of California has continuously ignored workers’ concerns over the outsourcing of good middle-class jobs and the inequality and insecurity that it creates for the hardworking people that run UC every day,” saidMonica De Leon, Vice President of AFSCME Local 3299’s Patient Care Technical Unit.

“By ignoring the well-founded concerns of its frontline workforce, UC is eroding the quality of service that we provide to the students, patients, and communities that depend on us.”

Meanwhile, the university has accused the union leaders of spreading false information and demanding “unrealistic and unreasonable” annual wage increase by 8 percent.